“I always wanted to be somebody,
but I see now I should have been
more specific." –Lily Tomlin
The debate about what success means to each physician in medical practice is not really important. It’s way too complex of an issue and doesn’t decide anything. The value of physicians and their medical practices can’t be graded by a percentage of success.
It should be measured by the extent to which each physician is able to master their medical knowledge and business wisdom to create and use their maximum skills and talents.
Those often unrecognized abilities become evident only when the mind is open to goals, expectations, and possibilities which haven’t yet been consciously considered.
Does that mean physicians for the most part don’t have the power of introspection? Maybe, just not enough of it to recognize they haven’t yet reached their epitome of excellence in their profession?
One naturally thinks that once a physician begins making a good income in their practice, and then spends the rest of their career maintaining a gradual increase in income by slow incremental expansion of their medical practice, that they are at their peak. Nothing is as farther from reality, as that belief.
If then, you are able to accept the belief you have much more unrecognized ability to reach even higher goals for your investment of your time and cost spent in education, you’re a winner. Once you believe in yourself, it happens. I think Peter Drucker (wrote the book on business principles) said it well, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
How do you persuade yourself that you’re not yet at the top of your medical career potential, when you think you're already there?
Your unauthorized emotions tell you you’re right where you need to be. Because you have a comfortable grasp on your practice now, then why change things? Inertia is an animal that has tons of rationalizations in its stomach and powerful legs which follow you around everywhere.
Apathy, inertia’s brother, not only contributes to your nonchalant attitude, but also becomes a well deserved destination for your ambition. That doesn’t mean you can’t cage those animals and ship them to another universe.
Decisions begin in the mind. That’s the battleground. After your imagination rolls the ideas around in your brain, you begin to sense the truth and possibilities of creating a much better medical practice and considerably more income. Once the idea takes on a life of its own, it’s implanted in your mind as attainable.
That’s when the unexplainable change in your mental awakening begins to happen. Suddenly, for some a little longer, all kinds of creative ideas begin to pop up about what you can do to accomplish the task and how to do it (Isaiah 48:17).
Activation of your survival mode as a result of moving out of your comfort zone turbocharges your subconscious mind to search out all those hidden thoughts in your memory banks waiting for a chance to be exposed and used. Creative ideas would never have been there if you hadn’t gone through the process from imagined to possible to believe that they are within your reach.
This process is not as hard as you might think. Have you ever heard of “masterminding” or “brainstorming?” It’s the same process. Every successful business entrepreneur that I have ever met goes through this process time after time for maintaining their success. You should try this technique sometime yourself to prove it works.
Let’s say you are faced with some sort of dilemma or problem, like you just sold your wife’s diamond ring and you need to get it back. At bedtime you ask your brain to go to work while you sleep and come up with the best answers. When you wake up in the morning, low and behold, the solution is right there in your face. That event happened with your first marriage?
I’ve used this technique many times in my writing. Article titles are one of the things I have trouble creating—at least those which attract readers to read it. By then, I have some ideas already that just don’t feel right. At bedtime I have to give my mind its instructions like I mentioned above and well over 90% of the time when I wake up, sometime in the next two hours the right title for my article pops into my head like magic.
Scientific research has shown the technique to be highly reliable. The earthshaking studies concerning these interactions of the conscious and subconscious minds were described so masterfully by the plastic surgeon, Maxwell Maltz, M.D. in his classic book written in 1961, Psycho-Cybernetics. The concept has withstood the challenges of time and critiques to today.
Dan Kennedy, marketing expert, once told me that the smart thing to do when it comes to creating something, is to take an idea that has already been working that someone has already thought of, and use that as the foundation to expand your thoughts. I found that I could select someone's published title legally and ethically that impressed me and change the wording to fit my intention.
You get started by comfortably seating yourself in a quiet room without interruptions and ask yourself some questions such as...
1. Looking at your medical practice, “Is there any aspect of my practice which I see needs
improvement?"
2. “Are there any elements of my practice which are now being done that don’t contribute
to the growth of or productivity of my practice—and should be eliminated?”
3. “Where do I expect to be with my medical practice 5 years from now?”
4. “What is my ultimate goal for my practice ambitions when I look far into the future?”
5. “When I look deeply into my own thoughts and mind, am I completely satisfied with my
practice and the lifestyle it enables me and my family to live—or are you deserving of more?”
6. “Why would I settle for this level of practice income and productivity when I know that I could
with a little more effort improve it to an extraordinary degree?”
Writing your answers down will further help you to generate any conviction you have to take action on your decision. It’s what the world renowned author and motivational speaker Lee Milteer says about the critical process of asking yourself questions in her book, “Success Is An Inside Job.”
“By asking questions, you can outline all the available choices and determine a host of possible solutions. Then, you can gain valuable information you might not have thought of, if you hadn’t asked questions. The questions and answers will help you begin to develop strategies to take back your life”
----Professional Probe----
"Disruptions are bound to happen in your path to medical career success"
A friend once commented to me that "He felt like 27 miles of unpaved road." I grew up in an area of Pennsylvania with a lot of dirt roads. It was the perfect place to drive our 1951 stick shift Chevy around when I was 14 years old. We always look forward to that sudden breakthrough in life that turns us in the right direction. We call those opportunities.
Even Thomas Edison remarked, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Whitney Young, Jr. went one step further, "It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared."
When Allan Cox added, "Positive thinking is the means of dealing constructively with obstacles and opportunities," it provides a way for us to manage the future, even if our truck is hanging over the side of the bridge, or our medical practice is hanging on the razors edge of financial tragedy.
You may have heard of Ray Kroc, the inventor of the milkshake machine, then the selling of those to ice cream businesses, then made his millions. His advice was, "Creativity is over-rated, most business success comes from doing boring, diligent work. From developing a system that produces constant results and sticking to it." Ray didn't like his job of working in an ice-cream shop.
But today we are talking about professional services, something physicians do, but lack the tools to us to make medical practice successful enough.
Even Seth Godin felt that, "Professional service marketing is certainly among the safest I've ever seen. Because it appears to take no risks, but it's actually quite risky." He brings up the fact that all businesses have risks. Medical practice is a risky business, it's what keeps medical malpractice attorneys in big houses.
The essence of a financially failing medical practice is fostered by a physician who has decided to let his or her circumstances determine their future in medicine. It's the result of a medical practice that floats along without maintenance, then starts sinking.
Kinky Friedman says, "The best thing about mediocrity is--you're always at the top of your game."
This website has all you need to learn about business and marketing, without spending thousands of dollars on college courses and delaying your ultimate medical practice success waiting for the breakthrough that will never come. You will never find these education materials in the Medical Economics magazine.
Articles © 2013-2022/CGG INVESTMENTS LLC. All rights reserved. #4, 3-21-22
